Whistleblowers-plank
* Whistleblowers and whistleblowing get my respect, attention, and as capable, protection. * To halt corruption, a culture that supports whistleblowing is necessary. When things get out of line, people need to be able to call attention to the troubles, raise a voice to fix them, and seek help from others. * As a journalist and advocate of the role of the media in our democratic process, I understand the respect and latitude that public officials must grant to media. Their duties of being the watchdog are critical for our system to work. * Citizen journalists would get the similar respect from me as a public official. * I would not squeese the zone of ambiguity long enjoyed by journalists in the area of national security or elsewhere. * I would not work to classify any additional information. Rather, I would work to reverse the trend and de-classify as much as possible. Dissent matters to me and our city, region and state. To soar like the eagle, feathers need to be outstretched to the left, right and for the tail too. The city needs heaping measures of fresh and continual dissent. We need dissent as well as diversity within the neighborhoods as well as within the city's administration and elected leaders. Pittsburgh needs to clean house. Sometimes the only way to clean is by getting a new broom. Rather than giving a complete interview to a new police chief, City Council members were far more concerned with how the Post-Gazette obtained a confidential 52-page report on the actions of then-Commander Costa at a 2002 standoff on Homewood's Hermitage Street that resulted in three people being shot, including Mr. Costa, Officer Thomas Huerbin and fugitive Cecil Brookins. Councilman William Peduto asked city Solicitor Susan Malie to begin an investigation into "who released personnel files to the media." "The media has every right to report," Mr. Peduto said. He said he was concerned that other personnel files, including medical records, could eventually find their way into the press. "If we allow this to happen, it will happen continuously," he said. If laws were broken, he said, the matter should be referred to the Allegheny County District Attorney or the U.S. Attorney. Ms. Malie said she was reviewing whether any city rules or laws were broken but had not made any determination yet. She said she did not know how the information reached the media. Sure, an investigation needs to be conducted. However, if rules were broken by an employee, after a fair hearing, then the matter would be put onto the desk of the mayor to deal with accordingly. The mayor is the top administrator and the one who hires and fires most city workers. The mayor should fire or perhaps suspend city workers who are sloppy with the privacy of confidential records. City council should not be seeking to call the District Attorney on a city employee who felt it necessary to pass along a copy of a file of a top employee. The culture of public service and government needs to include a common-sense approach to whistleblowers. Links * Whistleblowers * P-G editorial Peduto sells out by Dennis Roddy from January, 2006. * Rauterkus and Running Mates blog article on police reports and rumors and whistleblowers from January 31, 2006. Category: Platform_Planks_from_Mark_Rauterkus